Music giant EMI is taking software locks off its digital music sold via download sites such as iTunes. The "premium" versions of EMI tracks will lack the digital locks common to songs available via many online sites. The move is significant because most download sites currently try to limit piracy by restricting what people can do with music they buy. Apple's iTunes store will start selling the EMI tracks in the "premium" format in May, with other services to follow. EMI said every song in its catalogue will be available in the "premium" format. It said the tracks without locks will cost more and be of higher quality than those it offers now. ... http://news.bbc.co.uk

Iraqi prosecutors have asked for death sentences against five defendants in the so-called Anfal trial for the 1980s crackdown on Iraq's Kurdish population. They include the alleged mastermind of the campaign - Saddam Hussein's cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as "Chemical Ali" for his use of poison gas attacks. Mr Majid has acknowledged ordering scores of villages destroyed, saying they were "full of Iranian agents". The trial was adjourned until 16 April when the defence will sum up its case. Saddam Hussein was a co-defendant in the case but charges against him were dropped after his execution in December 2006 over the killing of 148 Shia Muslims in the town of Dujail. Four of the defendants are charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity but Mr Majid faces additional charges of genocide. In his closing remarks, chief prosecutor Munqith al-Faroon asked the court to convict the five and give them the harshest penalty because they "did not...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6518319.stm

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's call for a regional conference with Arab leaders drew a skeptical response on Monday from Palestinian officials and some diplomats who said it was a diversionary tactic.Olmert proposed holding the conference as a possible alternative to U.S.-backed plans for talks through an Arab League committee that could try to negotiate details of a land-for-peace accord, diplomats involved in the matter said. The diplomats played down the chances of a regional conference taking place any time soon because Saudi Arabia has already made it clear to the United States that it would not be prepared to take part without a commitment from the Jewish state to accept a peace plan adopted at an Arab summit last week. The United States, Egypt and others have been pressing Olmert to agree to hold talks as soon as possible with the Arab League committee, but he has been reluctant to do so, the senior diplomats said on condition of anonymity. ...http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=3000522

Illegal trafficking of human organs from poor to rich countries threatens to undermine donation programs in industrialized states and worsen a growing shortage, transplant experts said on Monday. Exploiting poor donors, especially for kidneys, is creating a kind of "medical apartheid" that risks turning public opinion against transplantation schemes and could threaten rich states' legal donation programs, experts said. "Organ trafficking and its consequences are of grave concern for transplantation and public trust in medical establishments," University of Pennsylvania bioethicist Debra Budiani told a conference aimed at a common European policy on transplants. Andre Kottnerus, chairman of the Netherlands Health Council, said health officials had to speak out more publicly against organ trafficking, which the World Health Organization (WHO) says accounts for up to 10 percent of transplants worldwide....http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=3000528

Unknown gunmen have seized two Lebanese construction workers from their work compound in Nigeria's volatile Niger Delta, police say. The gunmen attacked a work compound in southern Bayelsa state where the men were staying, a police spokesman said. "It's true that two Lebanese men were kidnapped in Bayelsa, but we don't have details yet," Haz Iwendi told the BBC. This latest kidnapping comes two days after a British oil worker was seized from an offshore oil rig in the region. No group has claimed responsibility for the abduction, yet. Nearly 70 foreigners have been kidnapped so far this year in the oil-rich but impoverished region. ...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6518935.stm

Douglas Tompkins flies a single-engine plane into a narrow fjord in Patagonia, past sheer cliffs blanketed by ancient coihue trees and ferns the size of beach umbrellas. Snow-covered Andean peaks knife into the sky. This is Tompkins's backyard, and he's spent $50 million to turn it into a park as large as Yosemite National Park in California. Tompkins, who co-founded and then sold outdoor gear maker North Face Inc. and fashion company Esprit Holdings Ltd., has spent $200 million to buy almost 2 million acres of Patagonia from more than 150 landowners to save it from development. ``There's only one world spinning around in space; it's all we have,'' Tompkins, 64, says. ``You have to do anything you can to stop forces working to destroy it.'' Patagonia, a swath of mountains, rivers and grasslands in Argentina and Chile at the southern tip of South America, is one of the world's last great untouched frontiers....http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=a7XFzAyGweEc&refer=exclusive